Washington State Peeps: We’ve Got Republican Bigotry to Defeat

A bill that would eliminate Washington’s new rule allowing transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings consistent with their gender identity passed out of a Senate committee 4-3 Wednesday.

If you can make it to the hearing in Olympia on Monday at 1:30, please do go. If you are in the Seattle area and need a ride, I can take up to three people. I would only need you to chip in for gas. Let me know by end of day today if you want to carpool with me.

The obsession over bathrooms is one of the weirder conservative issues I’ve run into.

They don’t want a trans man (who may look by all outward appearances as a man) to use the “men’s” bathroom, but instead want them to go in the “women’s” bathroom (looking like the man he is) so that it would supposedly make it more difficult for cis men to go into women’s bathrooms. How does that work? Wouldn’t that just normalize the idea that people who look like men should be allowed to go into women’s bathrooms?

And what are the specific rules? Is the room you go to based on your genitals? Chromosomes? Hormones? If you change your genitals but still have your old chromosomes, do you still go in the same bathroom? What about circumcised men? Since they cut off part of their penis do they now have to use the women’s room? Is there a certain amount of their penis they have to cut off before switching rooms?

It would be ridiculous if it weren’t for the fact that such laws would be used to harass others.

And just how would reporting such a crime work? Would you call the police and tell them you think someone has the wrong genitals? Would they be required to look? If a person claims to have seen my genitals and reports me to the police, can I file a complaint about them being a peeping tom?

Can I demand the police look at the genitals of anyone I don’t like and uses a bathroom?

Kengi, trans men are like lesbians in that they barely register as existing in bigots minds. Almost every argument I’ve ever encountered with homophobes through the years has centered on gay men (AIDS! STIs! Anal sex ew!) and it’s even worse with transphobes who seem to be almost 100% fixated on trans women.

As I was writing this comment, something interesting occurred to me. Both bring up “protecting the children”, but the homophobes only seem to care about pedophiles who target boys and the transphobes only seem to care about pedophiles who target girls. Weird, because homophobes and transphobes tend to be the exact same people.

There are currently 5(!) different bills at various stages. SB 6443 was discussed last Thursday and was passed to Rules Committee for second reading. HB 2589 is probably not going to receive a reading as it missed a deadline. SB 6548 will be heard tomorrow. Don’t know yet about the other 2.

SB 6548 and HB 2589 are about people’s genitals (panty police in every public location?). HB 2782 is about either anatomy or DNA. (Panty police plus spit-tests everywhere! Nothing says America more than that.)

SB 6443 and HB 2935 are about overturning an existing code without defining criteria regarding who should use which facility. Only that identity doesn’t have to be accepted as sufficient.

It took the GOP almost fifty years to come back from the wilderness. I expect that it will take at least twenty-five years to roll back the GOP wave that exploited the Southern Strategy. Keep your powder dry, choose your fights, don’t assume it will be easy. Settle in for a long war with many reversals.

This is a huge reason why I wish I didn’t have to move to Ellensburg to get the degree I want: the town is in the 13th District, and both of its representatives are sponsors of this bill. It is also in the 8th Congressional District, with former fascist sheriff turned fascist Republican, Dave Reichert. Mind you, I am leaving the 43rd Legislative District, one of the most consistently liberal in the state, and I have been represented in Congress for 20 years by the irreplaceable Jim McDermott, one of the most liberal members of the House.

The only upside is that I will be able to participate in the August primary election at my current address, and will be moved in time to register and vote in the November general election. Not sure if it will make any difference, but it might.

I’m in the 30th and the three people in my household voted against the scum who won. We just have too low of participation from the people who matter the most – the impoverished majority who suffer from republican policies. I’ve considered going door to door in my apartment complex encouraging people to vote against gop assholes, but ugh, that is daunting.